Letters

Thursday, May 4, 2000 at 12 a.m.

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Jim Washburn deserves to be nominated for a Pulitzer for his insightful Lost in OC piece "Elian Go Home" (April 21). I suppose I would be showing my age if I told you that it had me saying, "Right on!" The mind-boggling arrogance of those who feel that only the United States has anything worthwhile to offer and that by definition anything related to the United States is better than any other system has been well-stated by Mr. Washburn. The pocketbook morality of the public debate in this country is becoming a danger to our democratic system—fewer and fewer voices can be heard. Our spiritual lives have been diminishing even as we become more engrossed in the lunatic gyrations of the stock market. Martin Luther King Jr. said he looked to a future where his children would be judged by the quality of their character rather than by the color of their skin, but now we are all judged by the size of our bank accounts.

Mr. Washburn's article should be copied and distributed far and wide as a rallying cry to those growing up in today's materialistic morass—and as a reminder to those who gave up their idealism to pursue the "good life" of what they have lost. Thank you, Mr. Washburn!

Mark Mansell OrangeThe staff couch potato responds: Yeah, Washburn's great. But did you see the South Park episode in which they used Romanian quintuplets to lampoon the whole Elian thing? No offense to Jim, but that was really, really great. SUBSIDIZE THIS

In R. Scott Moxley's "The Irvine Co.'s Manchurian Supervisor" (The County, April 14), mention is made that "along with the county's other developers, the Irvine Co. relies on local taxpayer subsidies to boost the profitability of their private construction projects." I would sure appreciate it if Mr. Moxley could expand on how this "local subsidy" works. There's an implication here that the developers are getting special treatment from Orange County political leadership. If such is the case, why hasn't this "special treatment" been more widely publicized and explained by the media? Sure enjoy reading your insightful articles about El Toro; keep up the good work!

Keith Bridwell Laguna NiguelThe staff couch potato responds: Yeah, Moxley good. How the hell is it that we viewers can wait, like, six months for a new South Park episode and yet they pulled this Elian spoof out of their ass in a couple of days? DEPT. OF CORRECTIONS

*Note that unlike the Times Orange County edition, the OC Weekly has the balls to list this story title.

The staff couch potato responds: Yeah, we're bitchen. What got me about that South Park episode is they ran promos of it before Elian was reunited with his father, yet most of the show folded in the federal storm trooping that occurred just a few days before South Park aired. Fucking brilliant.